The Tourism Documentary Hi! ASEAN, co-produced by ASEAN-China Centre (ACC) and Beijing Television Station (BTV), began shooting on 21 March 2017. The first shooting station was launched in Phuket, Thailand. Ms. Kong Roatlomang, Director of Education Culture and Tourism Division, and Mr. Chen Kesong, Tourism Officer accompanied the crew to Phuket.
The aim of ACC to work with BTV to produce the shooting project was taking the 50th anniversary of the establishment of ASEAN and the ASEAN-China Year of Tourism Cooperation as an opportunity, in line with the Belt and Road Initiative, to showcase the rich tourism and cultural resources of ASEAN from the perspective of documentary, and to actively boost ASEAN-China exchanges and cooperation in tourism, culture and education.
The whole shooting programme would be divided into four parts, covering all 10 ASEAN Member States. The first station of route one started from Thailand. The Embassies of all ASEAN Member States in Beijing, ASEAN National Tourism Organizations, ASEAN Secretariat and Malaysia Airasia Company had provided strong support to the preliminary preparation, communication and coordination, shooting programme development and logistic reception of the project.
In Phuket, Ms. Kong Roatlomang discussed with the relevant responsible persons from the Ministry of Tourism and Sports of Thailand, Phuket Tourism Bureau and BTV crew and exchanged views on the cooperation between ACC and the Ministry of Tourism and Sports of Thailand. In addition to Thailand, the shooting crew will travel to Lao PDR and Singapore to complete the second and third stations in route one. The documentary is scheduled to be aired before the end of this year, after the completion of the entire documentary production.